GabrielBelmont

I don't often post reviews but after reading what has been said on this game, I feel that I have to somewhat rectify how it's perceived. As an avid gamer I believe Infinite Space is the one the best games of the decade, and I think any Sci-Fi and/or RPG enthusiast ought to check it out while they still can. Let me start right away by saying that the game is austere. It's impossibly grand in scope and runs on the least powerful of all current platforms, so concessions were made. And it's got a pretty steep learning curve. I think that's what turned off most of the people who didn't like it. When I read that the game is "extremely hard," I take it the person just didn't have the patience and tenacity to learn all the subtleties of the game. Because it's deep and rich, but once you understand how it works, it's incredibly accessible and not any harder than most of the games of this era. But what's bad for some can be good for others, and one thing I've enjoyed about Infinite Space is that it doesn't hold your hand. It doesn't hammer plot points or tutorials on you; if you miss something the first time it shows up there's a chance you've missed it for good. And it also treats your wannabe character as he ought to be treated. The downside is that it can be unforgiving if you aren't quick to "get it". For example there's a very well done Help Menu, but it's up to you to go check it, as the game won't go over every little detail for you. I can get behind this philosophy myself but it might not be for everyone. It's old school. To briefly mention the gameplay, you play as the captain of a fleet of space ships. You'll start out with one, and over the course of the story come to command over a maximum of 5 ships at once. You'll fight enemy ships in battles involving a maximum of 5 enemies at once. To do so there are a wide variety of different strategies you can use, and you can fashion your fleet in very different ways depending on your preferences (e.g. favoring carriers that use small fighters to attack enemy ships, investing in heavy duty battleships, focusing on fast and agile cruisers, etc.). There are tons of possibilities and combinations, and well over a hundred models of ships. Aside from battles, an important part of the game is the management of your fleet. There are two sides to it: managing the ships themselves, by having new models built and equipping them with dozens of modules (a surprisingly fun, challenging and addictive activity), and managing the crew, by recruiting new members and assigning them to various posts depending on their faculties (count over 35 posts to fill and over 60 available crew members). Last but certainly not least, the game's plot is absolutely brilliant. Many games nowadays use their story merely has a means to put the player in a battle situation, but not in Infinite Space. The plot is very well crafted and rather complex (space politics!) and the characters behave like you'd want them to most of the time. In other words it vastly outclasses most video games in that department. If you like Sci-Fi or just good stories in general you'll have a blast playing this. In conclusion, I believe this game has been unfairly and somewhat hastily judged by most "professional" reviewers because of its low profile release. I highly recommend to experienced gamers and I give it a 10/10 simply because it does to perfection what it set out to do. Games of this caliber are much too rare nowadays.